Last Wave

Last Wave (ラストウェーブ Rasuto Webu) is the high score music for the racing game OutRun. It is a mellow jazz tune composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi initially for the arcade release, but has since been rearranged for the majority of the game's ports. The title comes from the game's official soundtrack.

There have been several renditions of this song through the various album soundtracks including a vocal version.

Games

OutRun (ARC)

The original rendition of Last Wave is played during the high score screen in the arcade game. Throughout the song crashing waves can be heard in the background, but these are not part of the music data. To achieve this effect, the music of the song plays on the YM2151 audio chip, while the wave crashes play on the Sega PCM. Because of the music and waves are separate, two versions of the song have been recorded, one true to the game with the waves, the other without.

OutRun (C64)

OutRun (MSX2)

Like the arcade game, Last Wave plays at the high score screen. Unlike the arcade game, Last Wave also plays at the title screen. The roar of the waves is built into the song as white noise. The song is rendered on the YM2149.

OutRun (TG16)

OutRun (GEN)

Last Wave on the Genesis is essentially the same song, but it has been rearranged to play on the YM2612. The change drops the melody in pitch and gives it a warmer sound. Also, in the Genesis version, the wave crashes are not PCM sound effects, but are synthesized on the music chip.